the pod bay door

¦¦ With all due respect to my many dear American friends, occasionally you shake your head in disbelief at what some of them do to get attention, especially in the name of so-called patriotism. Will the “average” American ever learn that there is sentient life outside the 48 contiguous, and, gosh darn it, that it matters too?

¦¦ Another pronouncement from the established media that blogging is now mainstream.

¦¦ Late night musical discovery: Secondsight, from North Carolina.

¦¦ It makes good sense that my friend and colleague Stephen Abram is a member of the Internet Librarian Hall of Fame. My question is: how does one qualify, and who makes decision to induct?

¦¦ It was great to see SNL pay tribute last Saturday to Fred Rogers. Horatio Sanz sat on stage near the end and sang a song in his honour. In the past, SNL skewered him mercilessly, the high water mark being the early 1980’s with Eddie Murphy, when he did Mr Robinson’s Neighborhood. National Lampoon was in on it as well, satirizing him on one of their first albums. Read a most heartfelt tribute to Rogers from PopMatters.

¦¦ Make your own online kaleidoscope! The Internet justs gets better every day.

¦¦ At Geoff’s suggestion, I’ve added Blogrolling to manage the weblog links in the right hand column. So far I’ve added the locals only. I am behind in learning more about CSS, RSS feeds, etc. In time…

¦¦ Curb Your Enthusiasm, already through its third season on HBO, finally made it to Canadian television a few weeks ago. It’s hilarious, and I’m hooked. Yes, we still cannot get HBO in Canada. Bloody CRTC, protecting me from that dangerous American culture, and helping Canadian broadcasters produce other stuff of no interest to me in general. My feeling: let the Canadians produce a zillion shows, but don’t deny me the right to watch HBO as well.

¦¦ It’s late…time for bed.

¦¦ Each day we look for meaning in what we do, in what happens to us. This weekend reminded me of how important and rewarding it is to have great friends, to laugh and be silly, to meet friends and just talk about whatever, to eat good food, and to care about those less fortunate. A close family member has been struggling for a year to find meaningful employment, and a favorite cousin, dealing with Krohn’s disease for years, had another major surgery this past week. I keep them close to my heart, and when I step back for a moment, can easily see how incredibly fortunate I am to be in Edmonton, with great friends and colleagues, a great job, clean air, food in my belly, and warmth in my home when the temperature hits -40C/F, like it did yesterday. No, I’m not going to suggest you hug someone you love, but please permit me this moment to wax eloquent about what’s important to me at this time. And if you do hug someone, more power to you! Thank you.

¦¦ We are looking forward to breaking through to the plus side temperatures by Friday, when the mercury is forecast to rise from -23C on Thursday to +13C on Friday. I’ll believe it when I feel it.
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¦¦ The Friday Five:

1. What was the last song you heard?
Don’t Dream It’s Over, but by Sixpence None The Richer (on the radio)

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
Minority Report, The Rookie

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Rice Krispie square, French bread, Gala apples

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
Have friends over for an Outer Limits Pizza Party, jam with Peter, have dim sum at New Tan Tan, attend a Pilates class

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Geoff, someone in an elevator, Carlos Lange, someone else in Mech Eng, a grad student in mech eng.

¦¦ So it’s come to this: in the USA, you must use caution when wearing a t-shirt that reads: Give Peace A Chance and Peace on Earth. A 60-year old lawyer was arrested in a mall in Albany NY for refusing to remove his t-shirt, featuring the aforemention phrases. His 31-year old son avoided arrest by removing his t-shirt, which read, No War With Iraq and Let Inspections Work. The capper: he bought the t-shirt in a store in the mall. The good news is the mall owner has dropped the charges after protestors entered the mall wearing similar t-shirts, and refused to leave until the charges were dropped; what’s insane is that the charges were ever laid in the first place.

Since Sept 11 2001, free speech is America isn’t as free as it was once perceived to be. I watched Politically Incorrect the first night it was back on the air after the attacks, and heard Bill Maher suggest that the pilots of those planes were not cowards, but that the American military was, for lobbing missles from hundreds of miles away. He was admonished by Ari Fleischer, in what smacked as censorship from the White House.
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The temperature in Edmonton at the moment is -33C. The long range forecast for next Friday is +12C. There is hope.

¦¦ This is so annoying. But if you look closely, notice that the template of symbols changes every time. That has to have something to do with how it works. D’oh!

¦¦ For those interested in the Sept 11 building performance information, two good engineering publications exist, one online. The American Society of Civil Engineers has just published The Pentagon Building Performance Report. The report concludes that original design features, modified by recent upgrades, limited the collapse of the building after the airliner crashed into it. Within the report is a blurry picture taken by a security camera that catches the plane, barely a few feet off the ground, if at all, just before it crashes into the first floor of the Pentagon. Some illustrations from the report are available for viewing.

ASCE was also involved in the World Trade Center building performance study , released in the fall of 2002 by FEMA.
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